The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction

The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction

“Another great offering from Steve Hullfish. There are so many texts out there covering so many different aspects of post-production. Yet the final, all-important step of color correction and finishing has been a true tradecraft. The only way you learned was by sitting at the feet of a master. Steve has demystified much of that and given both beginners and professionals a fantastic resource.
Reading through this text is like sitting at the feet of the masters listening to wisdom. Randy Starnes, Mike Most, Greg Creaser. these are the guys I call when I’m confused about concepts or need clarification, and this is my business! Greg makes a wicked barbecue as well.”
– Lucas Wilson, ASSIMILATE, INC.


“As more of us shoot our own footage, we are also required to become our own colorists. The Art and Technique of Color Correction will help
you develop the skills you need to master this essential art.
Steve demystifies the technical art of color correction by patiently distilling the wisdom of eight professional colorists down to a skill
set any dedicated editor or motion graphics artist can learn. Those new to the field will particularly appreciate how he introduces all of the technical and slang terms required while still speaking plain English.”
– Chris Meyer, Founding Partner, CyberMotion; author- Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects, currently in its 4th Edition, After
Effects Apprentice

“Steve Hullfish has written another down-to-earth analysis of digital color correction for video. It’s great for editors who are tackling their first color grading job as well as those who do it every day, but want a deeper understanding of how to turn color correction into color enhancement. Not only does Steve give simple and clear explanations of the technical aspects, but he walks the reader through the steps that leading colorists use to apply their own artistic touch. And best of all, readers can try these approaches for themselves, using the very same sample clips. He goes past the ‘how-to’ so you also understand the ‘why’. This book is a must-have for anyone involved in color correction for video.”
– Oliver Peters, President and Founder, Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Puts you in the room with amazing colorists
Someone once told me, “The best way to learn how to color is to watch someone doing it.” Gaining access to someone at that level can be difficult (and expensive). At that time, I wished I had this book. The author puts you in the room with some of the best colorists working today. It’s interesting to see how each colorist approaches a scene differently and how the elements of the picture can motivate the color. For instance, one colorist may see football as the subject, another might be moved by the gritty dirt smeared over the side of it.

Whenever I need inspiration, I turn to the last chapter in the book, “Creating Looks.” This book gave me new direction that I hadn’t considered in the past and has helped me build my own “PowerGrade” library. It is by far the best book that I have found on the subject both technically and artistically.

4 Stars The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction
The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction

This is an excellent resource for understanding and practicing the art of grading. Great in-depth knowledge and a good array of footage for exercises. Highly recommended for anyone exploring color correction whether beginner or seasoned professional

2 Stars Okay book, but missing important elements.
Overall a well written book, that covers most of the important aspect of color correction. However, I gave it only 2 stars as the book does have some deficiencies.

1) The viewing environment used when color correcting is of utmost importance – yet this book gives only a very cursory coverage of monitor set up and viewing environment. Instead, the author points to a pervious book of his for this vital information.

2) This book has nearly no discussion of gamuts, color spaces, color profiles, LUTs and other related topics, all of which are critical. In fact, the reason I purchased the book was anticipating an adequate coverage of these topics. I would have returned it, but missed Amazon’s return window.

3) The book only mentions Luster once in passing. Other than that there is absolutely no discussion of digital color timing for film. As such, this book should be titled “The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction for Video”.

In short, while the book does a good job of covering certain tools and a very nice in depth discussion of secondary color correction, it misses to many important topics that I believe should be included in such a book.

5 Stars Finally know what all those adjustments do
The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction

If you’ve ever tried to color correct in your NLE and have no idea of what all the adjustments mean (such as “input Black”) and have been trying to teach yourself the software by just moving the knobs and looking at the results, then this book is for you. I am amazed after reading the first third of the book how much I have learned and how to use the built in scopes that come with most software. I may never become a colorist, but it sure makes my in-house projects far better. And when the day comes that I need to hire a colorist, I feel like I will be better prepared to speak the language. This will be another reference book that will be worn out from daily use.

5 Stars An excellent book!

I ‘searched inside this book’ and after reading the table of contents and the first few pages I decided to buy it. I had my reservations – not because of what I had read in the intro, but by the last few DV books I had purchased on Amazon. I am, I suppose, something in between a novice and an intermediate editor, and I edit on Sony Vegas Pro. This I have found puts me in a rather awkward category. In the past, all of the ‘how to’ books I’ve read have been far too basic or software specific.

What I really appreciated was the tone and pitch of the book. Most of the time, I find introductory books condescending – they seem to assume your inexperience equals a lack of intelligence (and corny jokes are unbelievable).

Before I read the Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction, I new more or less nothing about colour correction – my former corrections, dare I say it, were largely made using the contrast/brightness control – but this book made perfect sense to me. Steve Hullfish writes enthusiastically and encouragingly, and the book I believe would suit novices and pro’s alike. The clear definitions in the margins are an excellent idea and are perhaps the key to the book’s ability to transcend the novice/pro divide. If you understand the terminology move on, if you don’t the explanations are right there.

Although the book does not give examples from Vegas. It explains colorist parlance in useful analogies, and offers suggestions about where to look for color correction tools in NLE’s other than Avid and Apple Color. By in large, I found Vegas had most of the tools, scopes etc, and although I love Vegas, after seeing what Apple Color can provide, I do have a little ‘application’ envy.

One last thing… here’s a small anicdote: I recently made a short film on HDV and showed a couple of people who liked it and before I new it, I was being mentored by a large post production studio. I asked them for some advice on corrections. I ended up sitting down with their senior colourists, watching the film on the big screen and talking shop with them for a couple of hours. We were talking about masks, vignettes, secondaries, colour casts, gamma and all sorts of things that, to be honest, I new nothing about until I read this book. It seems there’s no substitute for experience, but because this book is full of advice from colourists with many years of experience, why not learn from your mistakes before you make them!

Glen Maw

Wellington, New Zealand

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